"I was kind of ready for that. I was just trying to focus only on my shots."

Seventh seed Konta – handed a wildcard for the tournament - is next up for Kasatkina, after she ultimately outclassed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 to become the first British woman to win a main draw match at the tournament.

.@JoKonta91 becomes the first British woman to win a main draw match @DDFTennis with defeat of Pavlyuchenkova.

The withdrawal of several high-profile players including Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova has potentially opened up the draw for the likes of Konta.

But eighth seed Kristina Mladenovic is one such player who will not take advantage after the French star slipped to a desperately disappointing 6-2 6-2 loss to Naomi Osaka.

Rounding off the action, there was double Russian success for Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova against Peng Shuai and Anastasija Sevastova respectively.

At the Hungarian Ladies Open, Sabine Lisicki recovered from a first-set bagel to defeat Pauline Parmentier 0-6 6-4 6-2, and there was more German success as Mona Barthel beat Kateryna Kozlova in three sets.